when is using 好得很 ok?

[BOoRFGOnZ]

很是副词 ... 这里是当语气词用

[raylauxes]

“好得很” is common and not necessarily considered grammatically wrong, but indeed, it sounds rather informal and thus it might be considered "inappropriate" (but NOT WRONG in terms of the language) in formal occasions.

Note: We Chinese-speakers have different idea when we talk about "grammar." Since we have relatively loose grammatical structures and less categories, we don't even have an individual course called "grammar" in elementary/middle school, which I believe is common in English-speaking countires. Grammar is merely a supplementary part of "Chinese" class, never a major part in terms of elementary/secondary education in both China and Taiwan. The reason, I guess, is because our rules are relatively easy. We don't have relative pronouns, different verbs for different tenses, we don't have to worry about suject-verb agreement, and we don't necessarily differentiate subject and objects, e.g. 我 means either "I" or "me" and 我的 ("my") is just the same word with a possesive word "的." Also, the shift of categories (verb<->noun<->adjective<->adverb) in Chinese seem rather flexible while it's a lot stricter in English.

Therefore, when native Chinese-speakers check their language, they tend to go with whatever SOUNDS better, which is correct in most cases. This is a different story in English. Take American English for example, what sounds better is often grammatically wrong. E.g. "If he WAS a bird, he would" should be "If he WERE a bird, he would;" "It would be ME, an exchange student from the States." should be "It would be I, an exchange student from the States."

Here's another evidence that we think of grammar differently--you can find TONS OF Chinese grammar books designed for FOREIGNERS, but NOT ONE for native speakers (at least I haven't heard there's one, or needs to be one). While you can find a number of grammar books written for native English-speakers, it's hard to find one for native Chinese-speakers.

Hope it helps. Any comment or correction is welcome.

Meng-Ju Wu

[skylee]

raylauxes, I agree with you. I know almost nothing about Chinese grammar.